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Open Hearts Open Doors: Reflections on China's Past & Future
by Elizabeth Gill Lui
Reviewed by Todd Shimoda
Since the post-Cultural Revolution reforms, China has been rushing toward modernization. As with any developing country or region, great swaths of the past are obliterated. Buildings are torn down, streets widened and paved, whole villages swallowed up by dams and the reservoirs behind them. And while the lives of many are improved, at least in bare economic terms, many are left behind.
Elizabeth Gill Lui, in her Open Hearts Open Doors: Reflections on China's Past & Future, has created a visual and intellectual tour de force aimed at lamenting this vanishing China as well as describing preservation efforts and issuing a call to action. A relative newcomer to China, Gill Lui first visited the country in 1995 and then again in 2007. Even in those few years, the changes she saw were dramatic. A fine art photographer, she documented the old and new and the juxtaposition of both. Trying to understand what she saw and felt, she began to create a visual record enhanced with the thoughts of many scholars and artists with connections to China, including the renowned architect I. M. Pei.
The photography in the over-sized book focuses on southeastern China. Knowing more much about Japanese aesthetics than Chinese, I would characterize the images captured (at least the rustic ones) as wabi sabi -- the simple functionality of objects imbued with a patina which only comes with time and use. There is also a sense of fitting in the natural environment, seemingly only one step removed from the dirt, rocks, wood, water, and plants that comprise its elemental materials.
As a counterpoint to her photographs of rustic China, Gill Lui highlights the effects of change, for example, garish Coca-Cola signs on the facades wrapping an old building. She also shows the rush of people in the great urban centers, now as flashy, trendy, and "un-wabi sabi" as anywhere found in Asia. But these images of China are not the focus of the book.
In the nearly twenty short essays (presented in English and Chinese), the authors address core issues of development: the meaning of culture, the thoughtless destruction of heritage, the need for and limits of conservation, the need for practical and livable dwellings, the effect of environment on the human spirit. The texts are concise, often poetic, just the right length to supplement the photography. As I. M. Pei writes: "When we speak of culture and cultural memory, I feel that we can only activate that knowledge when we interact with the world within which we live and have experience." The meaning of "culture", particularly its origins and changeability, is a running theme in the book. Film maker Keya Keita most directly addresses the issue: "We are the products of both our past and visions of the future; our cultural identity is formed by this tug of time, this ever expanding bridge."
The book is important as China is posed to increasingly affect the rest of the world in this century. Its economic force is already being felt. Its art and literature -- its culture -- is being and will be felt as well. And while the book focuses on China, its meaning in a larger context should make us look around our environment to see what effects it creates. But even beyond this, the book's simple beauty makes it a joy.
--
Todd Shimoda is the author of The Fourth Treasure and 365 Views of Mt. Fuji.
by Elizabeth Gill Lui
Reviewed by Todd Shimoda
Since the post-Cultural Revolution reforms, China has been rushing toward modernization. As with any developing country or region, great swaths of the past are obliterated. Buildings are torn down, streets widened and paved, whole villages swallowed up by dams and the reservoirs behind them. And while the lives of many are improved, at least in bare economic terms, many are left behind.
Elizabeth Gill Lui, in her Open Hearts Open Doors: Reflections on China's Past & Future, has created a visual and intellectual tour de force aimed at lamenting this vanishing China as well as describing preservation efforts and issuing a call to action. A relative newcomer to China, Gill Lui first visited the country in 1995 and then again in 2007. Even in those few years, the changes she saw were dramatic. A fine art photographer, she documented the old and new and the juxtaposition of both. Trying to understand what she saw and felt, she began to create a visual record enhanced with the thoughts of many scholars and artists with connections to China, including the renowned architect I. M. Pei.
The photography in the over-sized book focuses on southeastern China. Knowing more much about Japanese aesthetics than Chinese, I would characterize the images captured (at least the rustic ones) as wabi sabi -- the simple functionality of objects imbued with a patina which only comes with time and use. There is also a sense of fitting in the natural environment, seemingly only one step removed from the dirt, rocks, wood, water, and plants that comprise its elemental materials.
As a counterpoint to her photographs of rustic China, Gill Lui highlights the effects of change, for example, garish Coca-Cola signs on the facades wrapping an old building. She also shows the rush of people in the great urban centers, now as flashy, trendy, and "un-wabi sabi" as anywhere found in Asia. But these images of China are not the focus of the book.
In the nearly twenty short essays (presented in English and Chinese), the authors address core issues of development: the meaning of culture, the thoughtless destruction of heritage, the need for and limits of conservation, the need for practical and livable dwellings, the effect of environment on the human spirit. The texts are concise, often poetic, just the right length to supplement the photography. As I. M. Pei writes: "When we speak of culture and cultural memory, I feel that we can only activate that knowledge when we interact with the world within which we live and have experience." The meaning of "culture", particularly its origins and changeability, is a running theme in the book. Film maker Keya Keita most directly addresses the issue: "We are the products of both our past and visions of the future; our cultural identity is formed by this tug of time, this ever expanding bridge."
The book is important as China is posed to increasingly affect the rest of the world in this century. Its economic force is already being felt. Its art and literature -- its culture -- is being and will be felt as well. And while the book focuses on China, its meaning in a larger context should make us look around our environment to see what effects it creates. But even beyond this, the book's simple beauty makes it a joy.
--
Todd Shimoda is the author of The Fourth Treasure and 365 Views of Mt. Fuji.
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